Let's look at safe and natural ways to lower your cholesterol.

Begin with an exercise program and, if overweight, bring your weight down.

In men, especially if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, and have diabetes (or are prediabetic), this may ALL be coming from too low of a testosterone level. If your total testosterone is under 450 on the blood test, I would consider using prescription natural testosterone (Androgel or Testim or compounded) to bring your level up over 700.

In women, consider a trial of prescription natural Armour Thyroid — even if the labs are normal. High cholesterol is often caused by low thyroid and the tests are horribly unreliable (they miss the majority of those who need thyroid hormone). Consider an exercise stress test before beginning exercise or thyroid. Both are very healthy for the heart, but could unmask heart disease in those with severe heart blockages.

Enjoy eating your eggs and cholesterol. Study after study shows that eating six eggs a day for six weeks has no effect on cholesterol blood levels. Yet this myth persists. Avoid saturated fats (hard fats) and margarine (butter is much healthier and tastier than margarine).

Eat 1 to 3 cloves of garlic a day. Crushed into olive oil, it makes a yummy treat that may drop your cholesterol. In addition, have a cereal with oats for breakfast. Simply adding garlic and oats to your diet can lower your cholesterol almost as much as many medications. Artichokes also lower cholesterol.

Herbals can be quite effective as well at maintaining a healthy cholesterol level. I recommend a product called "Chol-Less" which contains inositol hexaniacinate (flush free niacin), berberine, chromium, artichoke, policosanol, and deodorized garlic.

If triglycerides are also elevated, especially be sure to avoid sweets and add acetyl-l-carnitine in a dose of 1,000 mg a day to the above for 3 months to see if it lowers the triglycerides.

If you are on cholesterol lowering medications (statins), be sure to take coenzyme Q10 in a dose of 200 mg a day.